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Saturday, January 3, 2015

Susan's New Year’s Resolutions 2015

I haven’t posted my NYRs on our blog in a couple of years, but I’ve still been keeping up with them. I have always enjoyed planning and goal setting, so NYRs are a lot of fun for me. I totally understand that NYRs don’t work for a lot of people. But I love them. It must be the librarian in me.

I think one of the reasons that NYRs do work for me is that I make them very specific and mostly achievable (I confess, I have sandbagged myself with some ridiculous goals on occasion). So, instead of resolving “I want to be healthier this year,” I make goals about how exactly I can do that – for example, “I will train for and run in a half marathon this year.” I tend to have an overarching resolution or theme to guide my goals, but in the end it is the specific, actionable goals that I track.

With that in mind, my overall theme for my 2015 Resolutions is to be physically & mentally ready to make two separate expeditions to Patagonia, Argentina. One will hopefully be the winter of 2015-16 with the Weber State University Outdoor Program and the other will be 2016-17 with a private party.

I like my resolutions to be multipurpose, so I love that this theme will also help me be healthier, expand my knowledge, and motivate me to keep my finances in the black so that we can actually afford these two trips.

It’s also cool that this will be a two year process – with my second trip being more demanding than the first. My plan is to use year 1 to prep as though I’m going on the more demanding trip, so it’s like a test run for the year that I think will be more challenging.

So, without further explanation or rambling, here are my 2015 New Year’s Resolutions.

By the end of the year, I will: 1. Be able to lead 5.8 in mountaineering boots. First step = buy mountaineering boots. I sold my old ones because they were a poor fit & expected to be able to buy new ones right away since we live next to freaking Salt Lake City. Annoyingly, none of the retailers here seem to think women climb, and I’ve had an impossible time finding any boots that I can try on.

2. Be able to comfortably hike 15 miles with a 55 pound pack. Roughly.

3. Have gone on multiple solo backpacking trips, including a week long solo backpacking trip. I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods, but surprisingly, I haven’t done much backpacking and unless I’m trail running I always have folks with me. I want to get my systems dialed and be totally comfortable backpacking by myself.

4. Have read a whole bunch of relevant non-fiction books. I have the list already, but it might grow so I’m going to hold off on posting it here. I will add book reviews on my writing blog as I complete them, as a way of holding myself accountable to this goal.

5. Have my gear ready. I’m going to be carefully selecting and testing the gear that I think I will need on this trip. I want to make sure that
I not only have the right gear for the job, but that I know how best to use it, maintain it, and repair it in the backcountry. Similar to Goal #4, I’ll be posting gear reviews on this blog to keep myself accountable.

6. Be able to converse in Spanish. At least the basics, anyway.

Those are the major goals. I have a few other things like sticking to the budget that Derek and I set for the year, but I’m not going to add those as resolutions because they are really just daily life responsibilities. When I am tempted to veer off of them, I’ll just chant “Patagonia” in my head until the temptation passes :)